Nuer student coalition in Uganda elects new leaders, calls for unity

August 17, 2014 (KAMPALA) – A coalition of Nuer students in Uganda has elected its new leadership to represent the Naath Universities and Colleges.

Newly elected union president Simon Marot Touloung said the leadership roles are about guiding and directing students and wider society on the right passage.

Touloung made the comments while speaking to hundreds of Nuer supporters in Kampala following Sunday’s election.

Touloung said he will work to promote unity among Nuer students and encourage them to work together to bring peace in South Sudan, which has been embroiled in conflict since mid-December last year.

Deng Gai Gatluak, an observer for the Naath Universities and Colleges, told Sudan Tribune that the elections were free and fair and stood as an example to all of Africa.

“If all elections in Africa were conducted in such [a] manner the continent would have been championed for world democracy,” he said. “The students were mature enough to vote fairly without intimidating one another.”

He said four Ugandan polices tasked with monitoring the process were also impressed with the way students conducted themselves during the election.

Well-known South Sudanese musician Gordon Koang Duoth also attended the elections in Kampala, urging students to work for peace despite the loss of relatives at the genesis of the crisis, which initially broke out in the capital, Juba, before spreading to other regions.

“Jesus said ‘Love your enemies as you love yourself’, but I find it
disturbing, when recalling the death of innocent civilians [when] comparing
with Jesus’ quote,” said Duoth.

He also called on Nuer students from the west and east of the country to unite
under one umbrella in order to achieve lasting peace in South Sudan.

The chairman of an electoral commission of Naath Universities and Colleges Students’ Union, Ter Manyang Gatwech, told Sudan Tribune on Sunday that the young nation, which sceded from neighbouring Sudan in 2011, is now facing immeasurable suffering as a result of parochialism, chauvinism and tribalism.

Gatwech said the country’s only hope was for new generation to encourage development and embrace democratic change.

The newly elected appointees for the Naath Universities and Colleges Union in Uganda are as follows:

– Simon Marot Touloung, president
– Gatkek Gony Chok, speaker
– Thoal Riik, secretary-general
– Nyarik Isaac Doyak, finance minister
– Gai James Kai, legal affairs secretary

(ST)